This week in my graduate course, we discussed the importance
of internal and external communication within an organization and the
importance of strategic communicators to make sure that the communication
channels within an organization remain fluid and clear. While reading the
assigned articles on this topic, I could not help but think of one organization
I worked for that had dysfunctional internal communication channels. I’m sure
you have had some experience working for an organization in which the
communication channels were partially if not fully blocked. If not, I bet you
have heard from a family member, friend, or fellow coworker of this type of
experience. Let me give you some background information about this particular organization
I worked for. Of course, I will leave out the organization’s name and any names
of current or former employees.
At this particular organization which is based in educating
the public in civil rights and promoting unity, and which was comprised of
twelve employees at the time I worked there, there was a great lack of internal
communication. The organization was awesome at promoting the organization’s
brand and its events, but it was dysfunctional when it came to fostering a
positive climate among the employees. Granted, the director of the organization
tried multiple times to boost the morale and the sense of unity within the
organization, but because of the subcultures that had formed within the organization,
it was hard for the director to cause any change among the employees,
particularly those who had been with the organization since its inception.
I was one of the organization’s newest employees, so I was
able to see the issues concerning communication more readily than those who had
been working there longer. While I was an employee there, I saw how the
channels of communication between supervisors and subordinates disintegrated because
of favoritism toward some and because of animosity toward others. Unless an
employee went to the director with a concern, the director seemed oblivious to
what was going on within the organization, which was a detriment to the climate
of the organization. After a while, and after several employees went to the director
concerning the negative atmosphere within the company, the director held a
meeting. At this meeting, the director tried to help us to be better to each
other so that we could in turn provide a welcoming atmosphere to the customers
who visited. Unfortunately, this meeting did nothing to help the issues within
the organization, and as a result, many of the positive, hard-working employees
left, which further hurt the organization internally and possibly externally.
Why tell you all of this? I used this example to explain how
effective communication at all levels within an organization is key to
promoting a healthy atmosphere among employees and to maintaining clear
channels of communication between employees and between the supervisors and
their subordinates. In Chapter 15 Section 4 of Leadership and Management, Phil Rabinowitz (2013) writes that “it’s
tremendously important” for organizations to “foster an atmosphere of openness and
create systems that will lead to the freest flow possible of, not only
information, but ideas, feelings, and a sense of shared purpose.” In my
example, this type of atmosphere wasn’t evident among the employees, especially
those who were fine with the status quo. One of the reasons why this atmosphere
existed there is because of employees creating “turfs,” or “their own little piece
of the organization” (Rabinowitz, 2013).
At this organization, employees ran two main areas. Because
these areas were literally separated by a long hallway, the employees had created turfs out of
these areas and shunned anyone who didn't fit into the standards of that turf.
Rabinowitz elaborated that “defending turf[s] can poison the atmosphere of an
organization, ruin the relationships among staff, and make it harder for the
organization to do its work” (2013). I found this especially true, namely because
the atmosphere within the organization didn’t promote what the organization’s
brand stood for. Because of the internal bickering and between employees and the
cliques that formed, customers who visited the organization could sense the
tension in the atmosphere as soon as they walked in.
In the article “Recognizing Dysfunctional Communications as
a Means of Improving Organizational Practices,” Molly Parsons and Steve
Urbanski (2012) write, “Communication is not only an essential aspect of an
organizational culture, but effective communication can also be seen as the
foundation of modern organizations. Community may not be a trait of many
organizations, but it is what defines organizations with strong cultures” (p.
168). In the case of the organization in my example, there was no sense of
community within the organization, which was tantamount to providing an awesome
experience for the employees, the organization, and the organization’s customers.
The authors also explained that “structuration offers the perspective that
within organizations the social system exists and persists as a result of each
individual’s actions, knowledge, and interactions over a period of time”
(Parsons & Urbanski, 2012, p. 156). Within this particular organization,
many of the employees didn’t want to take credit for their actions in creating
a workplace of tension due to miscommunication. They didn’t realize that by
working together to resolve conflict amongst the employees in a constructive way,
and by understanding that each person has something to contribute to the
workplace instead treating each other
like separate units, that they could improve internal communications in the
organization, thus improving the customers’ experiences while visiting the
company.
In the article “Exploring Public Sector Communication
Performance: Testing a Model and Drawing Implications,” Sanjay K. Pandey and
James L. Garnett (2006) wrote the following:
The communication channels that
work and that stay open and provide free and easy access up and down the chain
of command are as important as blood vessels to the human body…When lines of
communication become rigid and inflexible, they lose their usefulness and
reliability as information channels. (p. 39)
This proved especially true at the organization that I
worked for, because many of the employees felt that they couldn’t communicate
their concerns about the organization without feeling some type of backlash
from their coworkers. Despite the director stating that we could voice our
concerns freely, no one felt that the director would act on them because
nothing seemed to change for the better within the organization. Why was this,
you may ask? In my opinion, I believe the director of this organization failed
to utilize the aspects of effective communication, which include feedback from
the employees, listening skills, and reduction of communication
misunderstandings.
There are several ways leaders of organizations can use can
use feedback, listening skills, and reduction of communication misunderstanding
to improve communications in their organizations. Most importantly, feedback
provides them with insight into the organization’s climate. Through feedback,
these leaders can target the areas in which employees are most happy or most
disgruntled and work to continue the things that its employees like and work to
correct the things employees believe are wrong within the organization.
Feedback is probably the best form of communication an organization’s leader
can get from the employees because it also gives the leader the chance to
improve their own methods of communication.
Listening is one of the most underrated forms of
communication with an organization, most notably because people are more
concerned with the well-being of their own jobs versus with fostering positive,
beneficial relationships with coworkers and leaders within the organization. When
strategic communication leaders listen to the needs of the organization and to
the needs of the employees, both parties benefit. By employing effective listening
skills, these leaders will be able to predict the needs their employees and
their organization and preempt any miscommunication between and within the two
parties.
Strategic communications leaders must be able to identify
the barriers to communication and work to break these barriers and foster favorable
climates with their organizations. By knowing what these barriers are, they
will be able to modify their communication methods and use different methods
when interacting with the different communities within the organization. When
these leaders use these three components of effective, strategic communication,
they are able to reduce their chances of becoming the “bottlenecks” within
their organizations (Kline, n.d., “Communication and Leadership”).
In the case of the organization in my example, the director
failed to use these aspects of effective communication to engender an
internally unified organization. As a result, the organization’s internal
communication channels “bottlenecked,” meaning that the communication channels
jammed up at the top level of the organization’s structure. Many of the issues
at this organization stemmed not only from miscommunication amongst the
employees, but from the director not failing to take the verbal and from non-verbal
communication cues of the employees there as well. The issues that permeated
this organization are important for strategic communication leaders to examine,
especially those who influence internal communication, because, as Dr. John
Kline stated, “Subordinates take cues on how to communicate from those above
them” (n.d., “Communication and Leadership”). When there is effective strategic
communication leadership, effective internal communication will follow.
References
Kline, John.
(n.d.). “Communication and leadership.” Concepts
for Air Force Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/au-24/au24-289.htm
Pandey, Sanjay K.
& Garnett, James L. (2006, January/February). “Exploring public sector communication
performance: Testing a model and drawing implications.” Public Administration Review. Retrieved from http://www.library.eiu.edu/ersvdocs/4467.pdf
Parsons, Molly
& Urbanski, Steve. (2012, October). “Recognizing dysfunctional communications
as a means of improving organizational practices.” Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 2(4), pp. 155-175. Retrieved from http://www.ojcmt.net/articles/24/249.pdf
Rabinowitz, Phil.
(2013). “Section 4: Becoming an effective manager.” Community Tool Box. Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/leadership/effective-manager/internal-communication/main
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